Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich

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Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich
Origin Wiltshire, England.
Genre(s) British invasion
Pop
Rock
Years active 1964-1972
Label(s) UK: Fontana Records
FRG: Star-Club Records
Website dddbmt.com
Members
Dave "Dee" Harman
Trevor "Dozy" Ward-Davies
Anthony Stephen "Beaky" Carpenter
John "Mick" Hatchman
Ian "Tich" Amey
Former members
John "Beaky" Dymond
Michael "Mick" Wilson

Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich were a chart topping British invasion rock group of the 1960s.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Five friends from Wiltshire, David Harman, Trevor Davies, John Dymond, Michael Wilson and Ian Amey, formed a group in 1961 called Dave Dee And The Bostons. They soon gave up their jobs (e.g. Dave Dee was a policeman) to make money from music. Apart from performing in Britain, they also occasionally played in Hamburg (Star-Club, Top Ten Club), and in Cologne (Storyville).

In the summer of 1964, British songwriters Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley became interested in them. They made recordings with Joe Meek that proved unsuccessful but eventually gained a recording contract with Fontana Records. They changed their name to Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich — an amalgam of their nicknames. The distinctive name, coupled with well produced and catchy songs by Howard and Blaikley, quickly caught the UK's public's imagination, and their records started to sell in abundance. Indeed, between 1965 and 1969, the group spent more weeks in the UK Singles Chart than The Beatles.

Vocalist Dee, the ex-policeman, was at the scene of the automobile accident that took the life of American rocker Eddie Cochran and injured Gene Vincent in April 1960. Dee had taken Cochran's guitar from the accident and held it until it could be returned to his family.

They also scored a Number One hit on the UK chart in 1968 with "The Legend of Xanadu". This particular track made it 'big' world-wide - even where they had rarely previously had success - in the United States. Their other Top Ten UK hits included "Hideaway", "Hold Tight", "Bend It", "Save Me", "Touch Me, Touch Me!", "Okay" and "Zabadak".

Although the group never gained much popularity in America, they were big sellers elsewhere in the world. In Australia, for instance, they reached the Top Ten with tracks such as "Hold Tight", "Bend It", "Zabadak" and "The Legend of Xanadu" - the latter reaching either Number One or Two depending on the part of the country.

In September, 1969, Dee left the group for a short-lived solo career. The rest, re-billed as (D,B,M and T) continued releasing records, until they broke up in 1972. In the 1980s the group reformed again, but without Dee although there was one further single with him, "Staying With It" in 1983.

In the 1990s, at a time when many other of their contemporary bands were also reforming to tour on the lucrative "oldies circuit", they started performing once more, this time with their one-time leader, Dee.

[edit] Band members

[edit] Legacy

The group was partially name-checked by George Harrison in his introduction to the song "I Me Mine" on Anthology 3 (originally from The Beatles' Let It Be album).

In Quentin Tarantino's segment of the 2007 Grindhouse, Death Proof, the character Jungle Julia (Sydney Tamiia Poitier) calls a contact at the radio station where she works, requesting the group's song "Hold Tight." (She inadvertently refers to them as "...Mitch and Tich").

The group was referred to in the "Timeslides" episode of the UK TV comedy series Red Dwarf by Ruby Wax (whilst portraying the newsreader Blaize Falconberger).

Dave Dee is now a businessman and Justice of the Peace in Cheshire.

[edit] UK discography

[edit] Singles

  • "No Time" (Ken Howard/Alan Blaikley) / "Is It Love?" (Harman, Wilson, Davies, Amey, Dymond) (Fontana TF729, 29 Jan 1965)
  • "All I Want" (Ken Howard/Alan Blaikley) / "It Seems A Pity" (Harman, Wilson, Davies, Amey, Dymond) (1965)
  • "You Make It Move" (Ken Howard/Alan Blaikley) / "I Can't Stop" (Ken Howard/Alan Blaikley) (Nov 1965) - UK Chart High - Number 26
  • "Hold Tight!" (Howard Blaikley)/ "You Know What I Want" (Howard Blaikley) (1966) - Number 4 ( Used in the soundtrack of Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof in 2007 )
  • "Hideaway" / "Here's A Heart" (1966) - Number 10
  • "Bend It" / "She's So Good" (1966) - Number 2 — "Bend It" was initially banned in the USA.[1]
  • "Save Me" / "Shame" (1966) - Number 4
  • "Touch Me Touch Me" / "Marina" (1967) - Number 13
  • "Okay!" / "He's A Raver" (1967) - Number 4
  • "Zabadak!" / "The Sun Goes Down" (1967) - Number 3
  • "The Legend of Xanadu" / "Please" (1968) - Number 1
  • "Last Night In Soho" / "Mrs Thursday" (1968) - Number 8
  • "Wreck Of The Antoinette" / "Still Life" (1968) - Number 14
  • "Don Juan" / "Margareta Lidman" (1969) - Number 23
  • "Snake In The Grass" / "Bora Bora" (1969) - Number 23
  • "Mr President" / "Frisco Annie" (1970) - Number 33 (this was billed as D,B,M and T)
  • "She's My Lady" / "Babeigh" (1974)
  • "Staying With it" / "Sure Thing" (1983)

[edit] Albums

  • Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich (1966) - UK Chart High Number 11
  • If Music Be The Food Of Love... Prepare For Indigestion (1966) - Number 27
  • Golden Hits Of Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich (1967)
  • If No-one Sang (1968)
  • DDDBM&T (1969)
  • Together (1969)

[edit] Other UK releases

  • "Loos Of England" (EP, 1967)
  • "The Hits Of Manfred Mann And DDDBM&T" (Cassette EP, 1967)

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Hal Carter Organisation Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich